Lab Manifesto

The Earth System is facing unprecedented challenges that threaten both human and natural systems. Finding solutions to these challenges requires creative, collaborative, and dedicated groups of people that unite their individual strengths. We use both field studies and modeling to address a range of topics including: forest carbon, wildfire, species diversity, and productivity. Determining how climate change will influence disturbance patterns and species distributions is paramount for informing decision making to help ensure the continued existence of intact, fully functioning forest systems.

Mission of the Earth Systems Ecology Lab

The Earth Systems Ecology Lab aims to understand the effects that climate change will have on forest systems and discover new knowledge to improve mitigation and adaptation strategies. We will be an internationally recognized group for our research and a source of high quality, reliable information for policymakers, land managers, and the public. We will create and maintain a highly collaborative environment that is supportive of learning and success.

Central to our efforts is the idea that the power of the group is greater than that of the individuals that comprise the group. We are committed to advancing our scientific understanding of the world while being mindful of how that understanding is useful for arriving at impactful solutions. We recognize the contribution that each of us makes to our greater effort and support each other in developing individually. We maintain the courage to carry out our mission in the face of adversity and we do so with the wisdom to recognize our own strengths and weaknesses.